Family Matters

Can Jared Kushner Be Loyal to His Father-in-Law and His Faith?

From left to right: Donald Trump with Melania, Ivanka, and Jared Kushner at the Museum of Modern Art, 2008.

By Jimi Celeste/PatrickMcMullan.com.

“Having someone who grew up like us, who is now close to the president—that’s never a bad thing,” one associate of Jared Kushner told me recently. This source was not referring to Kushner’s experience in the real-estate business, where he leads his family’s multi-billion-dollar–development concern. Nor were they gesturing to Kushner’s tenure as a media executive. (In 2006, as is well known, the recent Harvard graduate purchasedThe New York Observer for $10 million.) Instead, this person was pointing to a far deeper matter: the 35-year-old’s faith. Kushner, the increasingly influential son-in-law of President-Elect Donald Trump, is an observant Orthodox Jew. He grew up attending a Jewish day school in northern New Jersey. His wife, Ivanka, converted before the two were married by a rabbi. They send their young children to a Jewish school in Manhattan. Both observe the Sabbath each week.

Kushner’s faith became an undercurrent of the Trump campaign in July, when then candidate Trump was accused of promoting anti-Semitic imagery through a tweet. One of Kushner’s own employees called him out in his own news organization for not denouncing the social-media missive. “Please do not condescend to me and pretend you don’t understand the imagery of a six-sided star when juxtaposed with money and accusations of financial dishonesty,” Dana Schwartzwrote. Kushner responded by disputing the assertion. “The fact is that my father in law is an incredibly loving and tolerant person who has embraced my family and our Judaism since I began dating my wife,” he wrote. “His support has been unwavering and from the heart. I have personally seen him embrace people of all racial and religious backgrounds, at his companies and in his personal life.”

In the intervening months, however, the issue has only grown more fraught. Kushner has risen within Trump’s inner circle, after all, by showing steadfast loyalty to a candidate who is wildly popular with the alt-right—a group that, as the Anti-Defamation League notes, condones anti-Semitism. Trump may embrace people of all faiths, as Kushner suggested, but his supporters have often and volubly projected a discordant message. Days before the election, Dana Milbank published an article in The Washington Postheadlined, “Anti-Semitism Is No Longer an Undertone of Trump’s Campaign. It’s the Melody.” Soon after the election, Slate compiled a list of racist incidents reported across the country, many involving Nazi imagery. More recently, the Huffington Post recorded dozens of of incidents of hate crimes, including those evoking anti-Semitism. This past weekend, vandals drew swastikas above the words “Go Trump” at Adam Yauch Park in Brooklyn Heights, while a group of white nationalists convened in Washington, D.C. to celebrate Donald Trump, discuss the Jewish problem, and exchange Sieg Heils. (On Monday, Trump issued a vague, tepid denunciation of the neo-Nazi confab.) Amid it all, Rob Reinerdenounced Kushner in the Daily Beast for “turning his back on his religion and his heritage.” (During an interview with Lesley Stahl on 60 Minutes, Trump told those committing hate crimes in his name to “stop it.” Representatives for both the Trump campaign and Kushner did not immediately respond to request for comment.)

VIDEO: America Protests Donald Trump

Can Kushner be loyal to both his father-in-law and his faith? “There are very much two camps,” said one former Senate staffer who now works with major Jewish organizations. “You have one side that’s up in arms about the language. And then you have a group of organizations that are being savvy here.” This latter group, this person told me, appeared prepared to turn a blind eye to such incidents in order to focus their attention on the goal of ensuring support for the state of Israel. This camp, this person continued, appears to be saying, “Actions speak louder than words, so let’s keep our powder dry for now, see what’s in his budget, and look at how serious he really is in his support for Israel before speaking up.”

Those familiar with Kushner’s dynamic with Trump believe his proximity to the president might bode well for Israel. Still, they are not without reservations. “For a lot of the community, they think it’s a comfort,” the Kushner associate told me, to have Trump’s son-in-law in the inner circle. “They would say, though, that if they were to want anyone from our community in this role, Jared would not have been the first person they would have put on the list. . . . He would not be the guy where you’d be like, ‘Oh, thank God he’s there.’ He wouldn’t be a first- or second- or third-round draft pick.”

Still, this person conceded the importance of having someone of their faith and background close to the president. “But, great,” this person continued, “we have someone there. It’s a comfort. He’s totally solid and fine.”

During his first fortnight as president-elect, Trump appears to be assembling not so much a team of rivals as one of adversaries. Entreaties to the conservative Establishment (such as the appointment of Reince Priebus as chief of staff) appear undercut by gestures to his alt-right base (like the selection of Stephen Bannon as his top strategist). Trump’s attempt to woo the avuncular and cool-headed Mitt Romney as his secretary of state appears compromised by his appointment of the more bellicose Mike Flynn as national security adviser.

Kushner fits somewhat naturally into this tableau. Given the dynamic of Trump’s inner circle, he can be viewed less as an apologist for the politician’s more racially charged supporters than, his supporters hope, as a stalwart against them. After Bannon, the former chairman of Breitbart News, was appointed to Trump’s administration, many Jewish organizations expressed grave concern over the site, which has found support among white nationalists. (In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Bannon said he was a tolerant person who simply happened to be an “economic nationalist.”). But others appeared relieved that Kushner, who said in a new Forbes interview that Bannon is “an incredible Zionist and loves Israel,” have a solid working relationship with Bannon (though he reportedly agitated for Priebus to get the chief of staff job, could provide a calming counterweight. He has “the trust and ear of the entire inner circle of the Trump administration, including the most important member of that group, the president-elect,” as Matthew Brooks, the executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition, told The New York Times this weekend, making him what he called “one of the most important players right now beyond the president- and vice president-elect.”

“Jared ... would not be the guy where you’d be like, ‘Oh, thank God
he’s there.’ He wouldn’t be a first- or second- or third-round draft
pick.”

Much of the divide, predictably, fractures along party lines. The Anti-Defamation League, for example, issued a strongly worded condemnation of Bannon’s appointment, calling it a “sad day” and asking President-Elect Trump to appoint individuals who promote tolerance and pluralism. The more conservative Zionist Organization of America, on the other hand, extended an invitation for Bannon to attend its annual dinner in New York on Sunday night. (Bannon, who reportedly reached out to ask for the invitation, did not show up.) At the heart of the schism is a disagreement about objectives: some Jewish groups are gravely concerned by the anti-Semitic views that have been percolating throughout the campaign; others appear more singularly focused on courting Trump’s strong support of Israel. “Our policy is we have to side on the practical, unfortunately, regardless of how much we have intense disagreements,” one director of a major Jewish organization, who wished to remain anonymous, told me. “If you know anything about Trump and Bannon, if you insult them, they’ll never forget it. We don’t have the luxury of doing that, because one day down the line, something really serious will happen, and we’ll be glad that we still have a channel in there.”

Susie Gelman, the board chair of the Israel Policy Forum, a nonpartisan group that has advocated for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said that she has talked to a number of leaders who share this pragmatic outlook. As to whether Kushner’s presence alongside Bannon gives her any comfort, Gelman said that having a Jewish family member doesn’t predispose anyone toward supporting Israel or the Jewish community. “We have to judge the president-elect by his words and his deeds, not his family,” she said. “That he has Jewish members in his own family in no way exonerates him from speaking out vociferously on the kind of anti-Semitism we’ve seen throughout the campaign.”

In some ways, the split among members of the Jewish community is merely a microcosm of larger ones enveloping the Republican Party and the American electorate itself. The challenge for Kushner, as it will be for Trump, is achieving policy solutions that narrow the divide rather than enlarge it.

Alabama: Judy Carns

“We’ve been in politics for a long time and we keep sending people to Washington to make a difference and we don’t do that much changing. I just said, ‘This guy’s got what we need.’”

Photo: Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Alaska: Jerry Ward, 68

Photo: Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Arizona: Russ Clark, 57

“We need to unify. It needs to be done regardless of the 17 choices that you had going into the whole thing.”

Photo: Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Arkansas: Bob Ballinger, 42

Photo: Photograph by Justin Bishop.

West Virginia: Michael Baisden, 66

“My hat is my hard hat from work. That’s actually coal dust . . . I wore it for about 16 years in a coal mine. Whenever a sticker would get scratched I wouldn’t remove it, I’d just cover it with another. It probably weighs about 10 pounds more than it should but it’s my hard hat. . . . There’s probably a thousand dollars’ worth of stickers on that hat if you go through all the layers. I used to sell heavy equipment in the mining industry. It became [that] there was no return on my investment. I couldn’t make any money because of the downturn in the coal-mining industry, so I’m not doing that anymore.”

Photo: Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Wisconsin: Jim Miller, 41

Photo: Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Wyoming: Timothy Bendel, 47

Photo: Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Alabama: Judy Carns

“We’ve been in politics for a long time and we keep sending people to Washington to make a difference and we don’t do that much changing. I just said, ‘This guy’s got what we need.’”

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Alaska: Jerry Ward, 68

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Arizona: Russ Clark, 57

“We need to unify. It needs to be done regardless of the 17 choices that you had going into the whole thing.”

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Arkansas: Bob Ballinger, 42

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

California: Samantha Schwab, 20

“I’ve always been a Republican. I’m a huge Trump supporter as well. This is the first election where I can actually vote, so my first time at a convention and the first time I’ve really been involved in an election.”

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Colorado: Justin Everett, 45

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Connecticut: Benjamin Proto, 57

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Delaware: Richard Forsten, 53

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Florida: Gay Hart Gaines

“I’ve been to many conventions but the first time I’ve been a delegate. I wanted so badly to be a delegate. It was on my bucket list.”

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Georgia: Dale Jackson, 36

“I was in Kentucky when Sen. Rand Paul announced his candidacy and I worked on his campaign.”

So you're still warming up the idea of Donald?

“I’m here for a totally different reason . . .the issue I’m passionate about is medical cannabis oil to treat my autistic son. . . I was up here last week trying to get it in the platform.”

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Hawaii: Nathan Paikai, 58

How are you liking Cleveland? “Cleveland showed me more aloha than some of my hometown.”

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Idaho: Jeff Thompson, 52

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Illinois: John Adkins, 51

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Indiana: D Jack Mahuron, 89

“This is my 10th convention.”

How has it compared to others?

“About the same except the security is more important now than it formerly was. We used to be able to come to the convention and walk out the door and go over to the shops and look all over around the city but we can't here.”

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Iowa: Westhenry Ioerger, 19

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Kansas: Dave Bohnenblust, 57

“I’m a Cruz supporter, but at this point I’m a Trump delegate, by our rules, until he releases me. I don’t think that’s gonna happen.”

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Kentucky: Hal Rogers, 78

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Louisiana: Jeff Giles, 60

“This is just a suit but last night I did a Trump hat. I was the only delegation chairman to wear a Make America Great hat. That was style my friend; that was class.“

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Maine: Donna Hopkins, 65

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Maryland: Ben Marchi, 38

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Massachusetts: Jimmy Davidson, 27

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Michigan: Bill Parfet, 69

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Minnesota: Mary Susan, 52

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Mississippi: Wayne Tisdale, 68

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Missouri: Kendal Spooner, 22

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Montana: Eric Olsen, 64

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Nebraska: Governor Pete Ricketts, 51

“I want a very contested primary myself. I got elected a year and a half ago. There were six of us in my Republican primary and I will tell you it was a hard-fought contest, very competitive. . . It was rough, but the day after that primary every one of my opponents showed up at the unity rally to support me because that’s what you do when you have a nominee. You get on board and you support that person in the general election.”

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Nevada: Brek Greninger, 73

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

New Hampshire: Jason Osborne, 38

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

New Jersey: Bill Layton, 45

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

New Mexico: Rick Romero, 62

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

New York: Susan McNeil, 60

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

North Carolina: WIlliam Gillis, 31

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

North Dakota: Sandy Boehler

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Ohio: Betty Montgomery, 68

How do you feel personally about Trump?

“The verdict’s still out for me. I’m certainly not going to vote for Hillary Clinton, but Donald Trump is a brand-new candidate at the highest level he can be. . .I have a few months to see how he behaves on the national stage.”

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Oklahoma: Lori Reeder, 37

“Oklahoma has for many years done their best to be the best-dressed at the convention so they have their own jacket with a patch on it and you have coordinated outfits most days—some of them are optional.”

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Oregon: Nathan Dahlin, 31

“I’m a Cruz delegate. I’m still waiting to see what happens—try not to be hasty . . . Cruz had a sense of decency and honor and how he treated other people. I felt that he conducted himself with integrity and that he stood up for the issues that were important to me. He fought in the Senate for those seeking jobs no one else in the Senate would fight for.”

Is it hard to be a Cruz delegate here?

“It’s a little hard; there’s not really any Cruz merchandise to buy except what we brought with us. Mostly people are nice.”

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Pennsylvania: Thomas J. Ellis, 56

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Rhode Island: Gerry Zarrella, 70

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

South Carolina: Gene D'agostino, 66

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

South Dakota: Hal Wick, 71

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Tennessee: Linda D. Buckles, 66

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Texas: Erin Swanson, 31

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Utah: Peter Greathouse, 39

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Vermont: Suzanne Butterfield, 69

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Virginia: Senator Richard Black, 72

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

Washington: Jeanne Congdon

Photograph by Justin Bishop.

West Virginia: Michael Baisden, 66

“My hat is my hard hat from work. That’s actually coal dust . . . I wore it for about 16 years in a coal mine. Whenever a sticker would get scratched I wouldn’t remove it, I’d just cover it with another. It probably weighs about 10 pounds more than it should but it’s my hard hat. . . . There’s probably a thousand dollars’ worth of stickers on that hat if you go through all the layers. I used to sell heavy equipment in the mining industry. It became [that] there was no return on my investment. I couldn’t make any money because of the downturn in the coal-mining industry, so I’m not doing that anymore.”